We all treasure our friends. We were created, not to be alone, but for relationships with God and others. St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that "There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship." Friends comfort us in times of distress and share our joys. Sometimes, they are ‘just there for us’ when we need a comforting presence. The Lord gives us our family and friends on our journey through life, but He also gives us spiritual friends, the saints! They are part of the Church Triumphant and are very close to us when we call upon them. They desire to be our guides, our intercessors and our dear friends.
Every November, Holy Mother Church reminds us that we are not alone but are a family consisting of the Church militant on earth, those suffering in Purgatory, and those who have entered into Heavenly joy. Through Christ, we on earth remain in communion both with the saints in heaven and with the dead who are still in Purgatory. We can pray for those in Purgatory and ask the saints to intercede with the Father for us. The saints in Heaven know us, and — being filled with His love — they love us too. They guide us by their example and assist us with the specific help they are known for, like St. Anthony for finding lost items or St. Joseph of Cupertino for help when taking exams! Our Lady is a mother to each of us, and we may run to her for comfort or motherly counsel.
We choose as our friends those who have something in common with us, or whose company we enjoy. Similarly, we can choose our Heavenly friends. We can look for one who struggled with the same faults as we do, had the same line of work, or the same temperament. And as we are going through trials of growing in spiritual maturity, the Lord will send them to help us overcome as they did. They are still alive and very close to us, if only we call upon them. I’ve made quite a few wonderful friends on my jo
urney, and I will share a couple with you!
When I entered the monastery at 18 years of age, I left nine siblings behind at home. (My youngest brother was born when I was a novice.) During my novitiate, I was very homesick. One day I picked up “The Family That Overtook Christ”, a book on the life of St. Bernard and his family. As I began reading, I felt a deep spiritual connection with him in his desire to know and love God. As a young man, he desired to find God, to become a saint! He wanted to give up things for God that he wouldn’t give up for anyone else. It wasn’t the ‘wicked world’ he gave up, but the good and glorious world, his close-knit family, his home, the hills and plain and blue-hazed mountains, the solitude of the deep woods and the silences of the starry nights. He was so zealous about giving his life totally to God, that he managed to bring his uncle, his brothers, and a group of young noblemen with him when he entered the monastery. I felt his friendship as I read the pages, and his words gave me comfort and encouraged me in my commitment to love Jesus with all my heart. He wrote: “In religious life a man lives more purely, falls more rarely, rises more promptly, walks more vigilantly, receives the waters of grace more frequently, reposes more securely, dies more confidently, is cleansed from his faults more quickly, and in Heaven receives a more magnificent reward!” I know St. Bernard interceded for me, helped me through my homesickness, and inspired me not to look back, but to gaze upward to the magnificent reward promised to those who leave everything to follow Jesus!
There are other saints that seem to find us, or maybe our Heavenly Father tells them, “Look out for this one, she really needs your help!” I think that’s what happened to me with St. Therese the Little Flower. I had devotion to her when I was young, after reading her biography, and so I entered religious life on the anniversary of her entrance into Carmel. As the years went by, I thought I outgrew St. Therese, but some new books were published that contained her letters, and one of the sisters kept telling me I needed to read them. Of course, I didn’t listen. One day I opened my choir stall in the chapel to find pictures and quotes of St. Therese all over it. Then, when All Saints Day came around and they passed a basket to choose a saint for the year, guess who was on the note that I picked? Yes, little Therese! She seemed to be pursuing me!
A couple of years later, I was visiting a community in San Paulo, Brazil. I went to my room, opened the closet door and guess who was smiling down at me, larger than life? I said out loud to her, “St. Therese, you’re following me to the ends of the earth!” Shortly before her death St. Therese had said, “I feel that I am going to my rest…but above all, I feel that my mission is about to begin, my mission of making God loved as I love Him, of giving my ‘Little Way’ to other souls.” This ‘Little Way’ is the way of spiritual childhood, the Gospel Message that God is our Father, and we are His children. The heart of the Christian life is to accept God’s fatherly love, and to surrender oneself to be transformed interiorly by that love. So, I began reading her writings again, and now I’m in a community dedicated to the Child Jesus, teaching the sisters her Little Way. I know she is with me as a dear friend, and I can’t wait to see her in Heaven!
Maybe this year as you celebrate All Saints Day, you can choose a saint to learn more about and to ask for their intercession throughout the year. It would be a wonderful way to make new friends!
“Their way of life offers us an example, by communion with them You give us companionship, by their intercession, sure support,
so that encouraged by so great a cloud of witnesses, we may run as victors in the race before us and win with them the imperishable crown of glory.”
Preface of Saints
Rosie Magazine Fall 2025
